


It's cold (But with you it's warm)

by teamanic



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Night Terrors, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22607518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamanic/pseuds/teamanic
Summary: Some nights haunted him with memories of ash. Like ghosts they trailed after him, whispering and reminding him of the ones he couldn’t save.At least Galo is there to save him, again and again.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 9
Kudos: 150





	It's cold (But with you it's warm)

**Author's Note:**

> Pure self-indulgent Galo/lio stuff. I wanted to explore the extent of Lio's emotional wounds such as guilt especially. I also wanted Galo just comforting him bc Im a sucker for hurt/comfort
> 
> I don't see enough angsty Lio hence this fic is born. Hope it waters your crops just as it did mine 
> 
> Drop a comment if you like! A comment a day keeps writer's block away. _(:3 
> 
> Also! Please note that I have limited knowledge on night terrors or trauma in general. So if I misrepresent something, I apologise for that :D
> 
> Edit: This is old! So my writing is really bad here

save us. 

Save us. 

SAVE US. 

He doesn’t realise the moment his conscious falls under that hands start to pull him down and down into a dark cold void. Panic wells from deep within him, like black ink, crawling up his throat. It threatens to spill past gritted teeth. 

It’s cold. 

Withered hands grappling at his clothes, their knuckles and boney fingers white and flaking with grey specks of ash and discoloured skin. 

Shadowed faces, merging, blurring together into worn out silhouettes. Lio doesn’t see anything except despair and defeat in the stark shadows of their faces. 

Like starved wounded things, they keep crawling back endlessly. They try to pull Lio under as well, to have him join as one of the faceless, the withered that perished into ashes. 

_We could not be saved. This fate will becomes yours too._

The engine core comes to life with a haunting hum, so do the Burnish. 

The world becomes a dreadful wrenching chorus of screams and tortured wails. The engine, the eye of the storm, did nothing but take, take take. Scraping his nerves raw against the selfish pull of the machine; his screams are not enough to dim the booming pulse of his blood pumping against his ear drums. White static, vivid colours burning his retinas, fleeting images of innocent burnish flaking away into grey obsolete nothingness. The Promare, once with their child-like chitter were no longer to be. They screamed, wailed, cried out with him, reality snapping into ugly pieces, shattering all around him. Every chipped fragment is a voice.

save us.

fReE us.

HELP US.

HELPUSHELPUSHELPUS- 

“LIO!” 

A shake of his shoulders rips him free from his nightmare. But he still trembles against the sheets, he still hears their cries in his head calling to him. His eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the dark of his room, his body hadn’t been prepared for the ache in his chest tightening and tightening. 

HELP US-

“Lio!” Again, It’s Galo. Why does he sound so panicked?

Lio vaguly feels the weight of Galo’s body dip into the bed beside him. He turns his back toward him away from the sound of Galo’s voice, curling his arms and legs into himself. He tightens the grip on his head, pulling his hair painfully from his scalp. It hurts, it hurts. But it doesn’t hurt as much as the deep ache stuck in his heart. When did his hands become so numb. Tingles spiderwebbed across his pale skin, hot cold chills running down his body. 

“Lio, you’re okay, you’re safe!” Galo’s weight shifts and then Lio feels arms reach for him, gently prying away the clawed hands in his hair. He couldn’t even feel the warmth of Galo’s hands for his own hands were numb, un-feeling. As if his hands were nothing more but flaking ashes. “Shh, it’s alright, I got you.” 

Ashes.

_Withered faces, ashes peeling from discoloured skin-_

His stomach twists, as if a fragment of the absolute zero freezing bullet was still lodged in there, somewhere. 

“Lio-”

“I couldn’t save all of them, I-” His voice tightened again, choking him off his words and of his breath. He hissed his words from clenched teeth, “ Why - Why couldn’t I have just-”

Galo was quick to react, picking Lio up in his arms, cradling him against his sturdy frame. As Lio breathes heavily, Galo cups the back of his head gently, smoothing his hair down and soothing away the trembles wracking his shoulders. His voice was just as soft, “ Lio, you can’t beat yourself up for the things that weren’t your fault in the beginning. In the end, they’re all free. That’s what really matters. You _did_ save them.” 

Lio tucks his head into his chest, his eyebrows furrowing together. He doesn’t _deserve_ to hear this. 

His next words tremble as he whispers,“I can _hear_ them. Their anguish, their pleas for help, cries for someone to save them, and I couldn’t-”

HELP US, FREE US. 

His hand formed a curled fist, slamming into the mattress beside him. Galo doesn’t budge even when he yells with spite. 

“I couldn’t-!”

SAVE US, FREE US.

WE WANT TO BURN, WEWANTTOLIVEHELPUSHELPUSHELP-

“LIO!”

Again, the sound of Galo’s voice snaps him back. He hadn’t realised he was shaking as badly as he were. His head feels eerily light on his shoulders and when did the air become so hard to reach-

Galo’s hand clasps over his own, intertwining their fingers together, “Lio! You just need to breathe alright? Focus on-” 

“ _No!_ ” Lio hisses as he wrenches his hands free from Galo’s grasp. His heart pounded, the ache in his head flared horribly, “Don’t patronise me!” 

_I don’t deserve this._

His hands pushed against Galo’s chest, shoving him away more roughly then he intended to. 

He regrets the feeling straight after. 

He did not know _why_ he was angry. Did he deserve this? Did he deserve to live freely, to live happily with someone like Galo to shower him with love and complete adoration when he knew that there were Burnish who had held their last breath, flaking into discoloured ashes. Should he be happy when he knew that he had deaths he could’ve prevented on his consciousness. 

Thyma. She was a name that left a regretful bitterness on his tongue. He remembered ashes fleeting away, carried by ghostly winds. How many others like Thyma he couldn’t save.

Something horrid and jagged, like ugly black thorns and just as cold as ice, spiked from within his chest. It was all so heavy. What kind of leader was he? 

_Pathetic._

“The ones I couldn’t save. Innocent lives destroyed to experiments or fuelling that _disgusting_ engine,” Tempered spite seethed from bared teeth, as if had the Promare back spewing fire from his mouth, I couldn’t-” 

“And absolutely _none_ of it was your fault,” Galo says with so much affirmation Lio almost starts to forgive himself. He brushes a stray strand of hair from Lio’s face, tucking it behind his ear. Leaning down he presses his head against his own, brings his hand up to his face with a gentle thumb caressing the side of his cheek. “None of it.”

The fire of spite stutters at the touch, steaming off of him. He can’t bring himself to stay angry at all. 

He breathes in a stiff breath, feeling unshed tears prickling his eyes. The headache did no better to ease the pain. 

Something warm presses against the back of Lio’s head and its moments after he realises it’s Galo pressing his head toward his chest. Galo doesn’t need to say anything, Lio already knows.

In his arms, he caves. 

He doesn’t stop Galo this time from holding him nor did he try to stop the hot tears streaming down his face. Choked sobs wrack his body, breaks him down to his very bones and flesh. Galo continues to pat his hair, stroking his messy strands back into place and whispering comfort into his ears. His words echo down to his very core. 

“You deserve to be happy. You deserve everything.” 

When his tears had run dry on his cheeks and the ache in his chest simmered into nothing more but a slight twinge, he draws in a shaky breath. He’s pleasantly surprised by how steady it is now. As if a dark fog had lifted from him, it was now a faint comforting glow of light that cloaked him all around. He relishes it, savours the warm heat of it all, even if a little selfishly. The ambience was a far cry from the storm that had unraveled like a tempest.

Shifting a little in Galo’s arms, he lets himself rest his head against his shoulder and breathes a sigh of relief. 

“How’s my little firebug feeling?” Galo asks with a grin. His eyes, beautiful deep sapphire eyes, glimmered. 

Lio huffs and off-handley bumps his fist against Galo’s chest. He’s not really mad though, “Don’t call me that, it’s belittling.”

“Nah I know you like it just as much as me!” Galo beamed and god did Lio’s heart flutter. 

“I’ll let you think whatever you believe.” He muses, closing his eyes in mock ignorance as he moves to shift out of Galo’s arms. 

“Well guess what,” Galo immediately scoops back Lio into an embrace, “I believe you deserve all the happiness in the world! Even if I have to run through every blaze, I’ll do it all for you no matter what!” 

“Idiot, you’ll get yourself burned.”

“Then Mr Mad Burnish will protect me with his flames, obviously!” He peppers a quick kiss on Lio’s lips, hands wrapping around his waist. Lio’s breath rushes out in a soft laugh as he feels the tips of Galo’s fingers tickling his sides.

“You’re an absolute fool,” Lio breathes, cupping Galo’s grinning (and stupidly cute face) in his hands. Just by looking at him, all his worries wash away, rendering all the black darkness in his heart to fade away into nothing more but a harmless smudge. 

“And now you’re stuck with this fool forever!” Galo squeezes Lio into a tight hug, “Like now, I’m not leaving until you feel completely better. I swear it on my burning firefighter soul!” 

Something in Lio’s heart swells. Even if his past ghosts of guilt and regret wanted to haunt him, fill his head with doubt and regret and smother him them, they were all surely to be banished in the light that was Galo Thymos.

So with his head cradled against Galo’s chest and the sweet temptation of sleep falling heavy on his eyelids, a whisper fleeted from his lips. 

Galo presses a light kiss on the crown of his head and tucks them both in under the thick warm sheets. 

It’s warm. 

“I love you too.”


End file.
